Monday, December 30, 2013

Happy Monday everyone!! A few days ago the Bath & Body Works semi-annual sale started and I may have gone a little bit overboard. Twice a year I allow myself to go crazy in there because the deals are just way too good to pass up. Plus, add in a few coupons and it makes it even easier to justify the insanity that is the first day of the sale. For today's mani I decided to go with a design based on my moms favorite scents, Japanese Cherry Blossom.

First I started off with one coat of Milani White on the Spot on all nails followed by one coat of Briar Rose by Hit Polish. I jelly sandwiched the glitter using OPI Funny Bunny. Next I sponged on Zoya Shelby a pink polish into random spots on the nails. To finish it off I stamped cherry blossom branches and flowers onto each nail using Vivid Lacquer VL022 and Sinful Colors Coffee. I had a lot of trouble with this stamp and think maybe it was just a bad plate. I had to stamp the nails several times to get it to appear as it does in the final pictures which I am still really happy with it was just hard to get there. I finished it all off with a coat of Seche Vite.

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone! And if you don't celebrate today then I hope you had a happy Wednesday! I celebrated yesterday with my family which was a good thing because I spent most of today in bed sick. Boo being sick on a holiday and on one of the few days off!! That's okay though because I had a great day yesterday with my mom and my sister and was also just able to relax today.

I had totally meant to do one last Christmas mani but that didn't end up happening. So what did I have on my nails for Christmas? Well, on my left hand I still had on the mermaid mani and on my right hand I had on Magazine Cover Mouse by OPI. That's kinda Christmasy so I just went with it. I used two coats of Magazine Cover Mouse. I just love textures so much because the formula is so great you barely need any clean up and they dry so fast. MCM has a little bit of sparkle to it but not as much as most other textures. I really liked this one: simple but the perfect Christmas red. Please excuse the awkward hand positions as I am not really use to taking pics of my right hand.

Monday, December 23, 2013

This weekend I just could help myself and did a whole other manicure using the amazing Vivid Lacquer plate VL023 that one of my best friends Linda got me for Christmas. It's so odd that it's Christmas and all I want are mermaid and pirate nails. But...I'm sorry that I'm just not sorry. I do think I will have to switch off and do some obligatory Christmas nails but this mani might just be going right back on after Christmas.

As soon as I saw this plate in the vivid lacquer store the idea popped into my head of exactly what I wanted to do. Somehow I actually was able to get it out on the nail exactly how I envisioned it in my head and that just never happens. Pre-Christmas miracle I guess!!

For this mani I started off with two coats of Zoya Farah on each of my nails. P.S Farah is amazing and quickly becoming one of my favorite Zoyas! I wanted to create the look of an old distressed map so I used Pueen 45 and Zoya Flynn to stamp on a almost splatter type design. Everything else was done using Vivid Lacquer plate VL023. Next on each of the nails except the ring finger I used Sinful Colors Coffee and stamped the map design with script. Using Cult Nails Fetish I added a different design to each of the nails with the plate.

There were just so many great images to choose from but I went with the large ship on my thumb, the small pirate flag on my index (yes, there is a much larger pirate flag on the plate too!), for my middle finger the small ship and a mermaid, and on the pinky a small skull and cross bones. For my accent nail I used Sinful Colors Coffee to stamp the image of the compass. I tried to stamp it at an angle and to the side to leave room for a pirate that I stamped using Fetish. The pirate totally looks like the Captain Morgan pirate...love it!! The plate is just perfect. Everything stamped great on the first try and just so many great images to choose from on one plate with lots of variations and sizes it's just so versatile for all nail types. I seriously can't show enough love for this plate.

To finish everything off I used one coat of Seche Vite. I think this may actually be my favorite design I have every done! Of course though I had to end up adding matte top coat to it but it just added to the effect!! If you haven't definitely check out the Vivid Lacquer store! Also, make sure to check out the other manis that are part of the Nail Art for Nubs linkup below!

Sunday, December 22, 2013

This weekend I got an early Christmas present from one of my best friends and just had to use it immediately. She got me two of the new Vivid Lacquer plates that I had really wanted which was so freaking sweet of her. So this post will be a small review of one of those plates and I will also have more from this plate tomorrow.

Vivid Lacquer plate VL023 is a pirate and mermaid themed plate with images of pirate ships, waves, a compass, pirate flags, and of course several different pirates and mermaids. As soon as I saw this plate released I was in love and fell even more in love with it in person. I think lately I have had a little bit of a pirate obsession. This may be because I have a slight crush on Captain Hook. No, not the cartoon or creepy version from Hook, but the hottie from Once Upon a Time. Tomorrow will be pirate nails but today I have Mermaids!

Let me just say first that the quality of these plates are amazing! These aren't my first Vivid Lacquer plates and are just as amazing and perfect as the other ones I have. The etching is perfect on these images and I didn't find any to be too deep or shallow. I was able to get a perfect stamp the first time on all of the images I tested.

I started off with a base of Milani White On The Spot on all the nails and then let that dry. Next I did a gradient starting at the tips and went about halfway up the nails using Essie In The Cab-ana. Then using VL023 I stamped on the wave pattern also using In The Cab-ana. I decided I wanted a little bit more contrast so I decided to use the double stamping technique and stamped with the waves again on each nail this time using Zoya Cynthia. I loved the contrast so much and almost left it at that but I had set out with intent to use mermaids and couldn't just leave it. There are four different mermaids on VL023 and I used one of each on my nails. I finished it all of with a coat of Seche Vite and then one coat of Butter London Matte topcoat.

Vivid Lacquer plates can be purchased for $8 a plate from their Etsy store here: Vivid Lacquer.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

The first thing I want to say is a huge I'm sorry!! The last two weeks have been so crazy with work and Christmas prep. Since I put on Dream Monday and still have it on today so you can definitely tell it's a busy week because that almost never happens. I did add some simple black stripes because I thought the contrast between the dark black and the sparkling blue would look great. It has kept me mesmerized all week long!! It's so simple but this combo made me so happy and I received more compliments on this than many elaborate manis I have done. For the stripes I used cheeky plate 10 and stamped with Cult Nails Fetish. I finished it all off with one coat of seche vite.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

During Black Friday this year I really didn't do much shopping. I never go out shopping that day because it just isn't worth the insanity for me. Online shopping though is a completely different story. I was really good this year and only took advantage of one deal and was able to justify it by calling it my Christmas present to myself. That order was with Zoya and it got me the huge dream box filled with 12 polishes. One of the main reasons I wanted that box was for Dream. I have almost purchased Dream so many times and now I finally have it in my hands!! Sure I already have two dupes of it but I am so drawn to colors like this I will purchase all the dupes for all of time.

Zoya Dream is a dark blue jellyish type formula full of holographic flakes. It only took two coats to reach full opaqueness and I didn't have any real issues with application. There was a tiny bit of balding towards the top of the nail on the first coat but it was easily covered by the next coat.I did two coats and finished with one coat of Seche Vite.Clean up around the cuticle was easy so I am hoping for minimal staining if any. It's a blue though so who am I kidding, it's going to stain! Don't care!! Dream is worth permanent smurf nails. Time for the pics!! All pics were taken outside in the sunshine but this polish sparkles and shines in all lighting.

Monday, December 16, 2013

The closer it gets to Christmas the more I just can't stop myself from adding more and more Christmas to my nails. I think they started off innocent enough with a Christmas jelly sandwich but I just kept adding more and more. But really who am I kidding? They are super tacky like a bad Christmas sweater and I love it!

For the jelly sandwich I used OPI Funny Bunny and China Glaze Party Hearty. I started with Funny Bunny then a coat of Party Hearty then repeated and finished with one last coat of Funny Bunny. After that I added one coat of Seche Vite to protect it in case I made a mistake with stamping. On my thumb and ring finger I taped off a triangle just using regular scotch tape. For the tree I used Zoya Chita and then removed the tape immediately. I added a star and ornaments to each of the trees using nail wheels I got off of Ebay. For the remaining fingers I stamped one snowflake using Maybelline Bold Gold and Bundle Monster plate BM H01 with a green jewel in the center.

Monday, December 9, 2013

Am I the only one who has days where no matter how many times you paint your nails it just doesn't turn out right like you have completely forgotten how to paint your nails?? This is how my entire weekend was. I kept trying and failing various manis so late last night I settled for one coat of Zoya Chita which is my new go to polish for crunch time. It's perfect in one coat and easy to work with so no clean up is needed. Then today I decided to tempt fate and add some stamping. It didn't turn out quite how I wanted but I am still happy with it and it feels so festive. I used Maybelline Bold Gold to stamp and Gals plate GA27 and Bundle Monster plate BMH03. Make sure to check out the other lovely manis that participate in the gallery below!!

Sunday, December 8, 2013

For this mani I started off with two coats of Pop Beauty Pacific Hoot. I let that dry completely and then added striping tape to each finger. Next using a cosmetic sponge I created a gradient with Cults Nails Riot, Party Time and Time Traveler. I did three layers of the gradient and then immediately removed the tape. I just had to keep adding more so I decided to add some stamping using Pueen plate 22. I was very happy with how it looked so I added a layer of seche vite. But then I decided no let's add more to it so I then added a layer of matte top coat and now I am seriously in love!

Monday, December 2, 2013

December is here!!! I'm so excited for this month if you couldn't tell. I love all the lights and shopping for presents and hot cocoa. Today I have a mani that is so Christmasy and fun. I did a jelly sandwich mani with stamping sandwiched in between the layers. I will list all the plates and polishes at the end because it's a ridiculous amount of supplies. I used 13 polishes!! I will tell you the order though: jelly, glitter, jelly, snowflakes, jelly, stamping, topcoat. As always make sure you check out the other blogs participating in the weekly event please.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving if that is what you celebrate or if not I hope your Thursday was wonderful! Also, happy first day of Hanukkah to those who celebrate! One of my friends shared a pin from Pinterest with me and told me I HAD to try it for Thanksgiving and since I love everything minion I very quickly agreed. Here is a link to the pin that inspired me to try the same thing. I was really happy with how it turned out and got so many compliments from my family. The only polishes I used were Zoya Arizona and China Glaze White on White. Everything else was done with acrylic paints.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

This is a polish that I normally would not wear and had to go out and purchase when I fell in love with a stamping mani I found that used this. I just didn't own anything in my collection like it. It's not normally a color I would be drawn to and one that I didn't think would be flattering on me. I'm so glad I found that pin on Pinterest that mad me buy this though because I absolutely love. it.

Below Deck is a taupey-mauve color that I feel actually compliments my ultra pale skin instead of completely washing me out. The formula was great on this as well. I used two coats but it was almost a one coater. I had no problems with flooding either. The polish stayed exactly where I put it. For top coat I used one coat of Seche Vite.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

My friend Linda at Linda's Polish Emporium and I decided we wanted to do a matching twin mani so we started searching Pinterest for something cute and simple that we could do quickly and we found a cute mani a lot like the recreation you see here. For the ring and index finger I used a base of Bondi Lady Liberty stamped using Cult Nails Fetish and Shany plate 214. For the middle finger I used A England Dorian Gray topped with two coats of China Glaze Fairy Dust. My pinky I orginally wanted to do matte so I used Cult Nails Fetish but I ended up going for an overall glossy look so I topped it with a coat of Seche Vite.

Monday, November 25, 2013

This week this first real cold front came through and the temperatures dipped down below freezing so I thought a winter mani was very appropriate. I wanted to do something with snowflakes which reminded me of a this mani I saw on pinterest that I wanted to recreate here. I started off with two coats of Cult Nails Nevermore. I then added a layer of glitter with D&R Apothecary polish Aquarelle and then topped all that off with a layer of Butter London matte topcoat. For the snowflakes I used Barry M Silver foil effects and Bundle Monster H01, Winstonia W120, Gals GA1, and plate m59 from Born Pretty store. To finish everything off I added small light blue gems to the center of one of the snowflakes on each nail. I used nail glue for the gems so that they would last longer since I didn't want to use a real topcoat. I wanted to have the silver be shining and bright above the matte of the base and I think the overall effect is amazing.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Julep Winter was a little bit of a mixed bag for me. I really do love the color and the end result but getting there was a challenge. Winter started off watery and runny and in the first coat flooded the cuticles on most of my nails even though I was being super careful. Winter was also pretty streaky and patchy on the first coat. On the second coat I noticed that as I moved from nail to nail the polish was thickening and actually becoming gloppy on the nail. I actually saw the polish becoming stringy at the opening when I was brushing excess polish back into the bottle. Overall, the formula of Winter is a total fail. I'm afraid of what will happen next time I reach for it because by then it could be the consistency of tar.

That being said though I do love the color of this polish. Winter is a medium cool toned grey that reminds me a little of sidewalks. Grey is one of the colors I seem to be lacking a good variety of in my collection so I will definitely be using it again. Let's just hope thinner is not required!

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

I'm strongly thinking about making Pinterest manis a weekly thing or something. I have been finding so many amazing pictures of nail art there lately and it has inspired me to try to recreate them. Last week I fell in love hard with this pin. I knew I had to try it out myself since of course I am on a huge matte kick plus I already had the right stamping plate. My problem was that I dug through two helmers and found out I had nothing that was quite like China Glaze Below Deck or Joy so I had to buy them both. Luckily they both showed up on the same day even though they were from different sellers. I don't think my polish has ever came off quicker than when I opened those packages.

To recreate the pin I started off with two layers of China Glaze Below Deck. Then I added a layer of Seche Vite to protect it and topped that with a layer of Butter London matte topcoat. I let that dry for a few minutes and then using Bundle Monster plate 312 I stamped the cloud design using China Glaze Joy. I am so in love with the outcome and the tone on tone effect. It turned out just like the pin and made me one happy girl so I call this mission a success!!

Monday, November 18, 2013

For nubbin Monday I decided to try out one of my new Juleps that came in the November box, Winter. For this I used two coats of Winter and then added a layer of Seche Vite. Then using Zoya Sam I stamped on some swirls and roses on the accent fingers using Bundle Monster plates 305 & 323. Next just using a regular black stamping polish I added some barbed wire over each finger using Bundle Monster plate 323. I cleaned up around my cuticles to give the stamping some time to dry before adding a final layer of Seche Vite. Please make sure you check out all the other great bloggers who are posting today as well!

Sunday, November 17, 2013

I decided to add a little bit of stamping to Lady Liberty and also test out if one of the other polishes I received from them would stamp. Plus I thought the dark blue and aqua would make a great combination and it turned out great in my opinion. NYPD stamped perfectly! The design I used came from Gals plate GA30. Then because I am on such a matte kick right now I added Bundle Monster matte topcoat. I really can't decide which one I like more so I am just going to say I really love how they both came out.

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Today I have my first ever Bondi polish to share with you. There has
been a lot of drama lately surrounding the Bondi company and my
experience in actually receiving this polish was not the best ever but
I'm not going to really go into that. I am going to review this polish
based on the polish alone and not let any thing else influence my
opinion. So with that said, I really do like this polish.

Lady
Liberty is walking the fine line between mint green and aqua depending
on the light you catch it in. In the bottle it definitely looked a
little more like a dusty mint green but on the nail leans a little more
aqua. That could just be due to my skin tone and could look more minty
on someone else. The formula was pretty good with this. It was a tiny
bit on the thin side but just barely. If you are careful you can avoid
flooding your cuticles or if you just rush in quick with another nail
like me or an orange stick you should be fine as well. Lady Liberty was
opaque in two coats and I topped it off with a layer of Seche Vite.

Friday, November 15, 2013

October was not the best month for me for many reasons but I just realized I never posted my Halloween manicures here except for one. So here is just a quick post on some of the nail art I ended up doing in October.